THIS WEEKEND
For the second session in a row, a promising box office entry stormed into
the number one spot with ticket sales that blew away industry expectations.
Miramax's spoof comedy Scary Movie
opened with a towering $42.3M, according to final
studio figures, giving it the largest opening ever for an R-rated film
breaking the record held by 1997's Air
Force One which debuted with $37.1M. Spooking
moviegoers in 2,912 theaters, the Keenen Ivory Wayans-directed feature
averaged a scorching $14,542. Scary Movie
pokes fun at teen slasher movies of recent years and stars Shawn Wayans,
Marlon Wayans, and Carmen Electra.

Miramax can take most
of the credit for the spectacular showing of the inexpensive $19M comedy.
Hilarious trailers and advance screenings infected the marketplace with
a buzz that grew rapidly in the final two weeks before release. And with
the summer movie season offering more older-skewing pictures than last
year, teens and young adults were starving for an event film they could
call their own. Scary Movie
also generated the best opening ever for Miramax, the second biggest debut
this year after Mission: Impossible 2,
and the third best July opening in history after Men
in Black and Independence
Day. Plus, it cost only a fraction of
what those pricey films were budgeted at.

Last weekend's top
film, The Perfect Storm,
slipped to second with $27.1M falling a reasonable 34%. The George Clooney
disaster pic crossed the $100M mark in a very speedy ten days. The Warner
Bros. release cost between $120-140M to produce and could be able to collect
$170-190M at the domestic box office.

Mel Gibson's Revolutionary
War adventure The Patriot
declined only 31% in its sophomore weekend to $15.4M and boosted its 12-day
sum to a healthy $65.5M. With not much competition for adults, the R-rated
Sony release displayed good staying power and looks certain to become the
Oscar winner's seventh $100M+ blockbuster with Chicken
Run hoping to be his eighth.

Bruce Willis reteamed
with the folks at Disney for the family comedy
The Kid which opened with a good $12.7M.
Playing in 2,167 theaters, the film about a 40-year-old man who meets his
8-year-old self averaged a solid $5,855. Buena Vista reported that 90%
of those patrons polled rated the picture "excellent" or "very
good" and that females made up 54% of the audience. The distributor
is considering adding more locations this coming Friday. The
Kid's opening was somewhat similar to
the opening of Willis' last movie, The
Whole Nine Yards, which launched in February
with $13.7M and a $4,719 average.

DreamWorks once again
claimed the lowest decline in the top ten with their clay animation hit
Chicken Run
which grossed $9.9M in its third weekend. Sliding only 25%, the British
toon has collected a solid $63.7M in 17 days of wide release and stands
a chance at becoming the highest-grossing animated film in its studio's
history.

Jim Carrey's comedy
Me, Myself, and Irene brought
in $8.4M bringing its 17-day total to $67.4M. Off 37% from last weekend,
the Fox release should eventually finish with $85-95M.

Paramount's Shaft
collected $4.1M in its fourth weekend bringing its total to $62M. Martin
Lawrence secured the first $100M blockbuster of his career as Big
Momma's House grossed $4.1M taking eighth
place. The summer's biggest comedy has raised its cume to $103.6M. Asked
at the start of summer which comedy Fox would see the most sales from,
few industry observers would have chosen Lawrence's Momma
over Carrey's Irene.

Attracting $3.9M in
receipts during its second weekend, The
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle lifted
its ten-day sum to a disappointing $16.1M. Produced for $76M, the Universal
release is likely to reach only $25-30M domestically which will hardly
pay for the marketing campaign. Nicolas Cage rounded out the top ten with
the car heist pic Gone in 60 Seconds
which took in $3.6M for a $86.5M cume.

The year's two highest grossing films dropped
out of the top ten after hugely successful runs. Tom Cruise's MI2
brought in an estimated $3.3M sliding only 33% in its seventh
weekend. Paramount's $90M franchise hit has tallied a stunning $204M to
date (outperforming the original's $181M) and has held up surprisingly
well each week despite being a sequel. MI2 should
go on to finish with $210-220M.

It's been a banner year for Russell Crowe
thanks to the smash hit Gladiator which
grossed an estimated $2M, slipping just 18% in its tenth battle. Produced
for $103M, the DreamWorks/Universal co-production has upped its cume to
a mighty $173.9M and could retire with $180-185M stateside with a global
tally racing towards $400M.

Lions Gate saw a superb start to its teen
comedy But I'm A Cheerleader which
picked up $60,410 from four sites for a potent $15,103 average. The film
expands nationally on July 28.

Compared to projections, Scary
Movie powered its way well past my $26M forecast while The
Kid opened close to my $14M prediction.

Take this week's NEW
Reader Survey on whether X-Men
will open with at least $30M. In last week's survey, readers were asked
whether this summer's movies have been better than last summer's. Of 2,291
responses, 55% said Worse, 23% said Better, and 22% chose Same.

The top ten films over
the weekend grossed $131.7M which was up 28% from last year when American
Pie debuted in the top spot with $18.7M,
and up 17% from 1998 when Lethal Weapon
4 opened at number one with $34M.

Be sure to check back
on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next
weekend when X-Men
leap into theaters.

This column is updated three times each week
: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary),
Sunday (post-weekend analysis with
estimates), and Monday night (actuals).
Source : Exhibitor Relations,
EDI. Opinions expressed in this column
are those solely of the author.